No one's been posting on this forum lately so I thought I'd post my accomplishment today.

I am doing a 22 night trip Sept 15-Oct 7th and I'm happy that I got all my food, coffee, stove, gas, and cookwear in my 30L Blue barrel. It fit absolutely perfect with little hassle. Total weight in harness is 33.45 Lbs. My Prism, spare paddle and portage yoke weight just above or below 36 Lbs depending on which paddle I have stowed. So I'm under 70 lbs from the start and will only get lighter with each passing day.

Have not done final gear pack yet because I haven't made final clothing and footwear decisions yet, and probably won't until Sept 13th. But I did do a test pack of more clothes than I will end up taking and I will be under 45 lbs for my gear pack for sure.

Wow that food barrel seems really light. I'm just guessing here, but allowing about 4 lbs for the barrel and harness itself, and maybe 4 lbs for cook gear and fuel, that would put you just barely above 1 lb of food per day - which seems really light to me. Are you sure that's enough - especially for fall? (self disclosure: I'm a chronic overpacker). Did you happen to get the total weight of just your food?

Sounds like a good job, Mike. It would be interesting to see the breakout weight of food and other items if available. For 16 days mine comes to 19.2 for the food packed in an Ursack and a BearVault 500. Add 3.6 for stove, pot, fuel, spoon, mug, cozy and it's 22.8, which also includes a spare burner for the stove.

Curious as too your stove/fuel type. I ask because I had a tiny crack in the O ring seal on a white gas bottle and it leaked just enough vapor that it tainted some of my food because it was "sealed" inside my blue barrel. It permeated right through zip locks or foil type packaging. I now meticulously check seals and always keep my fuel in the gear pack. Probably not an issue with canister fuels......but maybe? Just an FYI. Hate to lose any food on a trip that length.

Primus Eta lite+ stove/pot combo(w/towel, lighter & spoon stowed inside)= 17.9oz
2 canisters fuel= 36.9 oz gross weight
Total 3 lbs 7 oz rounded up

Blue Barrel with CCS harness 6.5 Lbs.

So 3.5+6.5= 10 lbs before food

As far as food goes It is the same food I took on my 27 day solo last year so I know it's plenty for me. I save a lot of weight and bulk by just having Bulletproof coffee and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter and honey for breakfast. I don't normally eat breakfast anyway and I get roughly 260 calories for each ounce(2 TBSP's) of coconut oil in coffee and another 160 cals for 2 TBSP's of PB/honey. So for 2 Oz I get 420 calorie breakfast, not to mention 2 oz takes up little space. So breakfast total weight is 3 LBS with containers and provides 9240 cals.

Lunch is 2.5 oz trail mix, 1.4 oz beef jerky, 1.4 oz dried blue berries, 1.3 oz chocolate covered mango. Plus 15 lunches I packed a tuna packet and tortilla( 3.1 oz). averaged out it's about 500 cals per lunch. So lunch is my heaviest meal at 8.7 oz each day. I usually snack this stuff at portages during day. Over 4 times the weight of breakfast and only 80 more calories. If only I could eat PB and coconut oil for every meal.

Supper is a dehydrated meal with a couple more TBSP's of coconut oil. Most are home made but I did buy a few store bought ones. Average supper weight 3.25oz + 1 oz oil. 4.25 oz total. Calories varied and hard to calculate. The coconut oil in dehydrated meals makes them taste great, nice and greasy.

I also have a 9.6oz bag of M&M's and 14.3 oz of instant coffee and a couple packets of cocoa. averaged over 22 days is 1.08 oz.

So yes I am at about exactly 1 lb per day for food. This worked awesome for me last year. I went off my notes from last year and cut out all the extra food I carried last year so I should be spot on. I really don't have the appetite on solos that I do when with others. And I don't think it will be as cold as last year. I did lose about 12 lbs on my solo but never felt like I was lacking food.

But thanks Jaywalker, now you have me second guessing myself. LOL. I took all my stuff out of my barrel to get weights and when I repacked it I did a better job and I do have a bit of extra space. May have add a few extra treats. If I could squeeze 2 more LBS of goodies that would get me close to 1.2 LBS a day of food. With a total pack weight of just under 35.5 LBS. I will do an update if I add anything.

Boonie, if I'm figuring right, your bear barrel weighs 2 lbs and your ursack around .5 lbs then you have about 1 lb of food per day also right?

I was able to fit another tuna packet, another jar of PB, small jar of coconut oil and another hot lunch meal of home made chili in my barrel. I now have a weight of 36.75 Lbs total. So 26.75 lbs of food= 1.2 lbs per day. Adding about 5630 more calories or 255 per day.

It's nice knowing it will fit in the barrel, but I'm not 100% sure if I really need it. Still at 73 lbs with canoe and food for first day is reasonable so I probably will keep it in just in case. Heck, my aluminum canoe with seat backs and cast iron rod holders was 85+ lbs and never got lighter.

minnmike: " Boonie, if I'm figuring right, your bear barrel weighs 2 lbs and your ursack around .5 lbs then you have about 1 lb of food per day also right?"

Yes, the BV500 and Ursack/OPsack actually total over 3 lbs. and so food comes out about 15-16 lbs. but I don't pack a breakfast for the 1st day or dinner for the last, so I've got 14 breakfasts and dinners, and 16 lunches/snacks, which provide about half of my daily calories. So figure 15 days food at 16 pounds equals a little over 1 lb. per day at 2200+ calories. Breakfast averages 600 calories, dinner 550 +/- depending on the mix, lunch and snacks about the same. A good bit of fiber, fat, and fair amount of protein in it, so pretty satisfying. Solo it's mostly just fuel since there's no social component.

Boonie, sounds like you got it down. Can't wait to show each other our set ups in 10 days. I am wondering if you have a separate pack for your BV and Ursack and is so what it weighs.

No separate food pack, Mike, the Ursack just goes in my regular pack. Maybe if I did a 3-4 week trip ;).

Curious as to where you might be headed.

GraniteCliffs: "Curious as to where you might be headed. "

Yeah me too GC. Starting out at Baker Lake EP 39 with Boonie on the Sept 15. The plan right now is head to Cherokee. Then set off on my own head east to Brule, Winchell, Gaskin then west to Tuscarora. I want to go thru Paulson north to Seagull and Maybe thru Grandpa and Roy up to Sag. West to Kekekabic. Then from Kek find my way and exit out at Sawbill.

But with being able to carry all my food this time I'm really keeping my options open. My goal is do routes I haven't before as much as possible. There are also a few area I wouldn't mind visiting again too. I am bringing maps to cover all my options just in case. Really it comes down to how many hours a day I want to travel and how many no move days I take if I want to hike or wind or relax. I'm excited to see how it all unfolds.

Final update. My food pack will be 36.6 lbs start weight. I added a few extra food items, a small pan and some butter/seasoning that I'm hoping to use to eat some of the mushrooms I know how to identify. With all the rain this week there should be a ton of ripe mushrooms to be had. No risk taking for sure as far as that goes if in doubt I just take pictures. So my canoe and food pack end up being 72 lbs.

My final gear pack weight is 58 lbs. Quite a bit heavier than my initial trial run.
I did add my new wool pants and gloves and few extra comfort items and I still end up with a reasonable weight.

Double portaging the whole trip. I have many route options for 22. My average route, if I take a full 7 no move days, will cover 5035 rods portaging x 3 for double portaging and about 150 miles of paddling. This doesn't include day trips on days I don't move camp. Obviously I am not doing the border route challenge and miles isn't my goal. My goal is to enjoy myself, travel and relax when I want through my favorite place. Can't wait until Sunday morning!

Wishing you the very best of luck on this trip and can't wait to hear back about how it went. I dont know if I can pull it off, but I have not abandoned hope of one more week up there. If you see a guy with a red canoe and two black labs, be sure to wave of stop in for some coffee.

I’ve got 6 1/2 days food (7 day) trip in an Ursack. Total weight including the Ursack is 7.4 lbs.

boonie: "I’ve got 6 1/2 days food (7 day) trip in an Ursack. Total weight including the Ursack is 7.4 lbs."

Nice Boonie. You must be done driving for the day. See you soon.

Jaywalker: "Wishing you the very best of luck on this trip and can't wait to hear back about how it went. I dont know if I can pull it off, but I have not abandoned hope of one more week up there. If you see a guy with a red canoe and two black labs, be sure to wave of stop in for some coffee. "

Thanks Jaywalker. And the same goes if you see me. Solo Prism and orange CCS tarp here. Probably wearing my Flying Moose ball cap or Boonie hat.

ever since i went to outdoor herbivore, hawk vittles, my food barrel got lighter. with boonie last week, i got 10 days in one bear vault 500, with food that came home.
outdoor herbivore portions are larger and more satisfying.